Tagged With "Talking about violence"
Blog Post
Inside the ACE Score Strengths Limitations and Misapplications with Dr. Robert Anda (www.YouTube.com) & Note
Cissy's note: Thanks to @Elizabeth Perry for flagging me and letting me know about this important YouTube video posted on April 6th via the ACE Interface Laura Porter channel which furthers this important discussion about the uses/misuses of ACEs scores. This topic is written about from a personal perspective by @Sirena Wheeler here, yesterday, on ACEs Connection a piece entitled Erasing My ACEs which @Laura Porter commented upon. I have found tremendous benefit from learning about ACEs...
Blog Post
Interview: Trauma-Informed Care with Transition-Age Youth [psychologytoday.com]
Last month, an article titled “The Tragedy of Baltimore” in the New York Times Magazine described the upsurge in violence in a city long known for its “blight, suburban flight, segregation, drugs , racial inequality, [and] concentrated poverty.” At the center of the storm are transition-age youth, who too often face long odds and challenging futures in the communities where they live. I recently had the opportunity to talk with Patricia Cobb-Richardson , MS. For the past 20 years, she has...
Blog Post
Interview: Trauma-Informed Care with Transition-Age Youth [psychologytoday.com]
Last month, an article titled “The Tragedy of Baltimore” in the New York Times Magazine described the upsurge in violence in a city long known for its “blight, suburban flight, segregation, drugs , racial inequality, [and] concentrated poverty.” At the center of the storm are transition-age youth, who too often face long odds and challenging futures in the communities where they live. I recently had the opportunity to talk with Patricia Cobb-Richardson , MS. For the past 20 years, she has...
Blog Post
Interview: Trauma-Informed Care with Transition-Age Youth [psychologytoday.com]
Last month, an article titled “The Tragedy of Baltimore” in the New York Times Magazine described the upsurge in violence in a city long known for its “blight, suburban flight, segregation, drugs , racial inequality, [and] concentrated poverty.” At the center of the storm are transition-age youth, who too often face long odds and challenging futures in the communities where they live. I recently had the opportunity to talk with Patricia Cobb-Richardson , MS. For the past 20 years, she has...
Blog Post
Introducing myself, Morgan Vien & NEW Practicing Resilience Community
Hello! I’m a Community Manager for the Practicing Resilience for Self-Care & Healing community. This is an introduction to me and this new community. I graduated with a B.S. in Public Health from Santa Clara University June 2017. And I’m interested in preventing chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol, at the community and population level by addressing biological, psychological, and social factors that affect chronic disease outcomes. As the...
Blog Post
Introducing the Full Potential Parenting Podcast!
I'm excited to announce that The Full Potential Parenting Podcast is here! This podcast features short (6-12 min.) segments with stress release techniques that work, offers book reviews of books that have been transformational, informative, or inspiring, introduces concepts critical to any parent of a child who is experiencing big (and confusing) emotions and behaviors, and provides insights about non-pharma approaches to healing. The first few episodes are now available on iTunes here:...
Blog Post
Invest in Foster Children Today for a Better Tomorrow [ChronicleOfSocialChange.org]
According to federal data , there are more than427,000 in U.S. foster care and nearly 112,000 waiting to be adopted. Those of us committed to ensuring safety and security for these children are anxiously waiting to see what President-elect Donald Trump has to say about child welfare. Children in care didn’t come up during Mr. Trump’s campaign, as he focused on the economy, security, and immigration. As the country moves toward a government controlled by one party — the party that often...
Blog Post
Is There A Foster-Care-To-Prison Pipeline? If So, This New LA-Based Program Aims To Break It (witnessla.com)
“Everyone talks about the school-to-prison pipeline,” said Loyola Law School professor Sean Kennedy. “But doing this work you see that there’s a group-home-to-prison. Kennedy is the Director of Loyola’s respected Center for Juvenile Law and Policy (CJLP), which was founded in 2004 to “tackle the injustices of the Los Angeles County juvenile court system” by providing pro bono advocacy for youth who find themselves caught up in that system. Thanks to a highly competitive $1 million grant from...
Blog Post
It started in her garage. Now, a Puyallup woman helps clothe almost 1,500 foster kids a year (The News Tribune)
It all started in Erika Thompson’s garage. Thompson, who has been a foster parent for a decade, remembers it well. Not long before, she welcomed the first of what would become many foster children into her home. Like many foster kids, the child arrived on Thompson’s doorstep in crisis and with almost nothing. The child was from King County, so Thompson was able to turn to a Seattle-based nonprofit that provides support and services for foster kids and their caregivers, including new and...
Blog Post
LA County to provide more support to relatives caring for foster children [svgtribune.com]
About 9,000 foster children in Los Angeles County — or 52 percent of all county foster youth — live with relatives, DCFS Director Philip Browning told the Board of Supervisors.
Blog Post
La Crosse County aims to tackle childhood trauma within foster care system [www.wxow.com]
Building on the momentum of sharing her message during Gov. Scott Walker's 2017 State of the State Address, first lady Tonnette Walker is continuing to promote her initiative "Fostering Futures." The idea behind the program is to aim to understand the effects of trauma in childhood and ask what happened to a child rather than what's wrong with them. "We started in 2013 really taking a closer look at training our foster care providers, adoptive parents and birth parents who have kids that...
Blog Post
Left Behind: Trump's Immigration Plans Could Spur Uptick in Foster Care Numbers [socialjusticesolutions.org]
As we begin a new year, a new presidency, and new policies on immigration, it’s vital for child welfare leaders to increase coordination with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to address the impacts of deportation policies on children who remain in the US, often in a foster care placement, following the deportation of their parents. Having experienced a significant lack of coordination between child welfare and immigration systems, including barriers to reunification in my own practice,...
Blog Post
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Questioning, and/or Gender Nonconforming and Transgender Girls and Boys in the California Juvenile Justice System: A Practice Guide [nclrights.org]
If you are a child welfare professional working with youth in California, chances are this practice guide may be a useful resource! Developed by Impact Justice and the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and published in January 2017, this practice guide is designed to provide probation department practice guidelines, and policy recommendations for working with lesbian, gay, bisexual, questioning, and/or gender nonconforming and transgender girls and boys who interface with the California...
Blog Post
LGBTQ, Traumatized Homeless Youth More Vulnerable to Being Trafficked, Report Finds [jjie.org]
By Stell Simonton, Juvenile Justice Information Exchange, October 21, 2019 Understanding how homeless youth are trafficked is important information for the organizations offering them services. That’s the conclusion of a report released today based on a 2018 count of homeless and runaway young people ages 14-25 in Atlanta. “Clearly, talking about trafficking is critically important,” said Eric Wright, chairman of the sociology department at Georgia State University, who led the survey and...
Blog Post
Life After Foster Care [LATimes.com]
T heir stories begin with heartbreak. A family unable or unwilling to care for them. Parents dead, addicted to drugs, absent. About 400,000 children in the U.S. live in foster care, according to federal officials. Entry into the foster care system is meant to keep them safe, but the reality is often fraught with its own dangers and disappointments. Times photojournalist Robert Gauthier interviewed more than a dozen young men and women from the Los Angeles area who were on the verge of being...
Blog Post
Live in a Poor Neighborhood? Better Be a Perfect Parent (www.nytimes.com)
Note: An article by Emma S. Ketteringham that shows how the system traumatizes and re-traumatizes many children and their parents. My hope is that as we talk about trauma-informed, trauma-aware, self-healing and resilient communities we talk less about how people can do better, try harder and more about we can all be a safer, kinder and treat symptoms of adverse childhood experiences and adverse community experiences and focus on treating the causes of both instead. When I met Eline, she...
Blog Post
Live webcast with U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro: how Congress is responding to families’ needs during the COVID-19 pandemic [Zero to Three]
Responding to Families’ Needs During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Conversation with Representative Rosa DeLauro, sponsored by Zero to Three Join ZERO TO THREE, Think Babies™, and partners this Friday, March 27 at 11 am EDT for a web broadcast with U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro (CT-03) about how Congress is responding to families’ needs in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. She will share what is in the bill on issues such as child care, Early Head Start, and paid family and medical leave, and...
Blog Post
Los Angeles County caregivers working to get foster kids off psychiatric drugs
Psychiatric drugs like lithium, Depakote and Prozac remain a popular choice for care providers trying to calm angry, depressed or anxious children in the Los Angeles County foster care system, but the pills are losing fans amid concerns about side...
Blog Post
Love as Destiny: A Former Foster Youth's Journey in Motherhood [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
By Katarina Sayally, The Chronicle of Social Change, October 25, 2019 If you haven’t heard enough stories about what breaking the intergenerational cycle of foster care looks like, I want to share one. This is our story, and it’s a good one. When I found out I was pregnant, the only fear I had was, “What if my baby ends up in foster care?” As a former foster youth who works in the field, I am constantly reminded of this possibility. One study found that mothers in foster care were twice as...
Blog Post
Lucinda from Minnesota #FosterEquality
My childhood was filled with war and terror, from growing up in a war-torn country to fighting my own battle with accepting my identity as a Queer Black Muslim girl. I was born in Liberia during my country’s second civil war that displaced so many Liberian families. My family and I escaped the war and came to the US in 2002 but the trauma of war followed my family. My family was separated after my stepfather's PTSD started to impact his parenting. My first placement was St. Joseph’s Home For...
Blog Post
Making the Good Stuff Louder: Trauma Dad, Bryon Hamel
Byron Hamel, (AKA Trauma Dad ), is a filmmaker , children's rights and men's wellness advocate. He's also a father with "ACEs through the roof," who survived child torture at the hands of a man now on death row for infanticide. Before the Father & ACEs chat started last week (see full chat transcript ), we discussed if and how to give a trigger warning. Hamel's experienced horrific trauma during childhood. He didn't want to traumatize those on the chat but wanted to be honest.
Blog Post
Manchester's Childhood Trauma Response Program Attracts International Interest [nhpr.org]
A delegation of law enforcement and public health workers from Wales visited the Manchester Police Department Tuesday. They were there to learn about a city program that connects children who have experienced trauma with mental health services. The program (ACERT) trains police officers in the effects of trauma on child development, and coordinates with social workers to help recruit affected families into trauma-therapy and other programs. To read the article, click here . ACERT stands for...
Blog Post
Mark your calendar for March 10 tweet chat on CA ACEs screening!
Hey ACEs Connection communities! Please join us for a boisterous tweet chat about ACEs screening in California on March 10 at 10 am Pacific/ 1 pm Eastern for #SaludTues, hosted by @saludamerica and co-hosted by @CYWSanFrancisco, @acesconnection and @CHCShealth. Get your thumbs ready, and spread the word! What: Tweet chat Who: Salud America, co-hosted by Center for Youth Wellness, ACEs Connection and Center for Health Care Strategies. When: Tuesday, March 10, 10am Pacific/ 1 pm Eastern Why:...
Blog Post
Mental Health, Social Adversity, and Health-Related Outcomes in Sexual Minority Adolescents: A Contemporary National Cohort Study [thelancet.com]
By Background Sexual minority adolescents are more likely to have mental health problems, adverse social environments, and negative health outcomes compared with their heterosexual counterparts. There is a paucity of up-to-date population-level estimates of the extent of risk across these domains in the UK. We analysed outcomes across mental health, social environment, and health-related domains in sexual minority adolescents compared with their heterosexual counterparts in a large,...
Blog Post
Millions sought to stem arrests at California foster care shelters (sfchronicle.com)
A California lawmaker is calling for $22.7 million in state funding to help prevent unwarranted arrests of abused and neglected children in the state’s residential foster-care facilities — a disturbing practice exposed in a Chronicle investigation last year. The three-year budget proposal, to be introduced next week by Assemblyman Mike Gipson, D-Carson (Los Angeles County), comes as arrests continue across the state at county children’s shelters, despite pledges of reform. While the total...
Blog Post
National Survey Finds Expanding Number of College Programs for Foster Youth [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
The number of college assistance programs for current and former foster youth is growing, but there are still major gaps in helping students access them, according to a national survey of state-run colleges. The goal of the survey, produced by the First Star Institute’s Foster Youth Success in College Project, is “to provide a more detailed current look at what these programs look like, how extensive they are throughout the country, and to detail best practices in place in different parts of...
Blog Post
Needed: A New Vision of Foster Care [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
The number of children in foster care has increased for the third straight year. Foster parent shortages have been reported in at least 24 states , with children staying in offices and hotels. The move by some states to close residential programs will only exacerbate these shortages. At the same time, many current foster homes are failing to provide the nurturing and attention that their wards so desperately need. Yet child welfare leaders are surprisingly devoid of bold and creative ideas...
Blog Post
New California Laws May Prevent the Overmedication of Foster Kids (elevaterehab.org)
In the past, lawmakers didn’t think twice about how doctors treated foster children suffering from emotional traumas such as abandonment and abuse. Nobody controlled how often practitioners prescribed psychiatric drugs that had serious potential for doing more harm than good. Today, investigations into California’s foster care system shed light on the doctors who fuel medication problems by inappropriately prescribing narcotics to the state’s most vulnerable children – ultimately leading to...
Blog Post
New federal program could help youths aging out of foster care in Maine [Portland Press Index]
By Eric Russell, Aug 1, 2019, Portland Press Index A new federal program targeting young people who age out of the foster care system could provide housing vouchers to as many as 25 youths in Greater Portland. U.S. Housing and Urban Development regional administrator David Tille will be in Portland on Friday to give more details about the initiative that was announced last week by HUD Secretary Ben Carson. Rhonda Siciliano, a spokeswoman for HUD, said Wednesday that the Foster Youth to...
Blog Post
New Tool Kit Helps Child Welfare Leaders Utilize Data to Support Expectant and Parenting Youth [CSSP.org]
Being a parent is hard at any age, but it can be even harder for younger moms and dads. And harder yet for young parents in foster care. To support these young parents and their families, systems leaders—ranging from child welfare to education to juvenile justice—need reliable data to guide policies and practices. Yet, according to Tammi Fleming, senior associate with the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative : “Data on expectant and parenting youth in foster...
Blog Post
New UCLA Research Center Will Focus on Preventing Entries into Foster Care, Needs of Foster Youth (chronicleofsocialchange.org)
Thanks to a $10 million philanthropic donation , the University of California, Los Angeles will establish a new research center dedicated to addressing the complex needs of children in foster care, particularly related to the educational system. The Pritzker Center for Strengthening Children and Families aims to be a hub of collaborative research with the goal of strengthening vulnerable families and helping to prevent many children in Los Angeles County from entering the foster care system.
Blog Post
New York’s parent defender model lowers reliance on foster care [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
New York City’s brand of wrap-around legal representation may not prevent the removal of children from their families. But they might be getting home much faster, and without any risk to their safety. A much-anticipated study of parent representation released this week found that for parents represented by interdisciplinary law offices (ILO) – which include lawyers, social workers and parent advocates – youth spend about four fewer months in foster care than in cases represented by...
Blog Post
North Dakota Trauma Initiative Sparked at August 16th U.S. Senate Field Hearing and Roundtable in Bismarck
Dr. Tami DeCoteau, holds the sign-up sheet for a North Dakota trauma initiative, flanked by Dr. Zach Kaminsky, (left), Dr. Mary Cwik, (right) of the Center for American Indian Health, Johns Hopkins University, and Megan DesCamps, health policy advisor for U.S. Senator Heitkamp ________________________ There is often a distinct event that leaders in the trauma movement mention when asked about how it all got started in their community. Many times it is when one of the authors of the ACE...
Blog Post
Officials discuss strategies to help children through opioid crisis [wmur.com]
The Opioid Crisis – it is an ominous, frightening, pervasive threat with far-reaching feelers, literally taking hold of families across the country. This crisis is often referred to as the paramount issue in communities, cities, and states. An issue worthy of attention, strategy, and community mobilization. State leaders gathered Friday to discuss strategies to protect young people from opioids and the trauma often associated with the dangerous drugs. Tackling the opioid crisis before it can...
Blog Post
Oregon foster youths seek $8.5M to help those aging out of foster care [Street Roots News]
Expansion proposed of Child Welfare’s Independent Living Program and other transition services Whitney Rodgers has spent nearly half her life moving from placement to placement in the foster care system, but it wasn’t until she turned 17 that she began to worry about what came next – after foster care. “I was always expecting there to be another step or two before I turned 18,” she said. “But then, at 17, I thought, the clock’s running out.” Rodgers admitted she had always been a flight risk...
Blog Post
Oregon psychiatrist testifies before Senate Finance Committee on the impact of childhood adversity and toxic stress on adult health
Appearing before the powerful Senate Finance Committee in Washington, DC, recently, Dr. Maggie Bennington-Davis, psychiatrist and chief medical officer of Health Share Oregon, devoted a significant portion of her testimony to the role of adversity and toxic stress during childhood on adult health, both physical and emotional. She explained how Health Share Oregon—that state’s largest Medicaid coordinated care organization—examined the people with the costliest health bills and found them to...
Blog Post
Our Most Vulnerable Population - Grandparents Raising Grandchildren
Before the pandemic, grandparents raising grandchildren were already in a precarious situation. They were struggling to meet the needs of children exposed to maltreatment and trauma while also supporting the family financially. But now, we fear, things have made a critical turn for the worse while those grandparents become unemployed, sick, or in the worst-case scenario, die due to Corona Virus.
Blog Post
Oxytocin Blunts Social Vigilance in the Rhesus Macaque (But this is the end of the last Talk I just listened to).
I'm listening to Van Der Kolk, MD (My Hero!!!!) tell us what he has to say about Stephen J. Suomi's talk: "Thanks Steve, I am really delighted that these presentations are being video taped and the reason why I am...
Blog Post
Palatine organization The Bridge helps teen cope with stressors [chicagotribune.com]
The Bridge Youth and Family Services has served children and families in the village of Palatine Illinois since the 1960’s. This private agency provides a wide array of services to youth and families to address childhood trauma and change the trajectories of the families they serve. Services include mental health, crisis intervention, mentoring, and social & emotional groups for families throughout this Chicago suburb. Managing stress takes practice, something The Bridge Youth &...
Blog Post
Parent who listens is key to helping kids overcome trauma (www.upi.com)
Excerpt from article by Dennis Thompson in United Press International. To read the rest of this article by Dennis Thompson published in United Press International, go here . Cissy's Note: it's rare to find articles on the healing impact of parents, after ACEs, or in general. There's so much advice to parents but not enough listening and learning from parents. This article shows just how parents can best support kids after trauma. Of course we need safe and supportive schools, systems, and...
Blog Post
Parenting Matters: Supporting Parents of Children Ages 0-8 (The National Academies Press 2016)
A study published by The National Academies of Sciences in 2016 resulting in 10 Recommendations to build support for parents... "Over the past several decades, researchers have identified parenting- related knowledge, attitudes, and practices that are associated with improved developmental outcomes for children and around which parenting- related programs, policies, and messaging initiatives can be designed. However, consensus is lacking on the elements of parenting that are most important...
Blog Post
Parenting with PTSD One Liners & Parenting with ACEs Chat Reminder
Parents with PTSD from ACEs sharing what's hard about parenting while post-traumatically stressed: "Managing the terror around the possibility of everyone being a perp." "How to talk to children about why they won't meet X relative." “There was a point when I would feel completely overwhelmed by something as simple as having to make breakfast and school lunches at the same time.” "I didn't understand that not all parents reacted or were triggered the way I was." "was stone set on not...
Blog Post
Parents’ emotional trauma may change their children’s biology. Studies in mice show how [sciencemag.org]
By Andrew Curry, Science, July 18, 2019. ZURICH, SWITZERLAND— The children living in SOS Children's Villages orphanages in Pakistan have had a rough start in life. Many have lost their fathers, which in conservative Pakistani society can effectively mean losing their mothers, too: Destitute widows often struggle to find enough work to support their families and may have to give up their children. The orphanages, in Multan, Lahore, and Islamabad, provide shelter and health care and send kids...
Blog Post
Parents worrying about coronavirus' toll on children's learning survey finds [edsource.org]
By John Fensterwald, EdSource, April 23, 2020 Buffeted by the coronavirus’ impact on their lives and on schools, Californians expressed worry about the spread of the pandemic and their personal finances, and parents in particular said they were concerned about school closures’ impact on their children’s ability to learn. But in an annual voter survey by the Public Policy Institute of California , they also gave high marks to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s handling of K-12 education and to their school...
Blog Post
Partners in Planning — When parents and caseworkers work together, families move in the right direction (www.risemagazine.org)
Link to entire piece here . Excerpt below:
Blog Post
Partners in Planning – When parents are supported to participate in planning, we can make better decisions [risemagazine.org]
This story is part of Rise's series by frontline staff at foster care agencies about their experiences working with parents. Recently, I facilitated a Family Team Meeting with a mother who was going through tremendous stress. (To protect her privacy, I’ll just call her “Mom.”) Her partner had recently died and she’d been diagnosed with a serious illness. She also suffered from anxiety and depression. Up until the series of crises in her life, she’d worked, had an apartment, cared for her...
Blog Post
Building Resilience in Foster Children: The Role of the Child's Advocate [repository.law.umich.edu]
Children who enter the foster care system often suffer from the effects of traumatic stress. The sources of their trauma may vary: they may be the victims of physical abuse, sexual abuse, or neglect-or they may be exposed to violence in their homes or communities. Similarly, many children who enter the child welfare system have experienced the loss of one or more significant adults in their lives, often through death or abandonment. Although the removal of a child from an abusive or...
Blog Post
California has Begun Screening for Early Childhood Trauma, But Critics Urge Caution [sciencemag.org]
By Emily Underwood, Science, January 29, 2020 On 1 January, California became the first U.S. state to screen for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)—early life hardships such as abuse, neglect, and poverty, which can have devastating health consequences in later life. The project is not just a public health initiative, but a vast experiment. State officials aim to cut the health impacts of early life adversity by as much as half within a generation. But critics say the health benefits of...
Blog Post
Can a Separate Department Reinvigorate Chid Welfare? [uwcita.org]
Early in December an article from realchangenews.org was shared with the group about Washington State merging children and family services into one Department. As with many States, leaders in Washington State are looking to advances in brain-science, trauma-informed practices, the impacts of ACEs, and focus on the developing child to provide scaffolding for the framework of this new Department. Click here to download the final report and read more about the Blue Ribbon Commission – the group...
Blog Post
Caring adult relationships can make the difference for children in trauma [register-herald.com]
CHARLESTON — Social workers, law enforcement officers and other children’s advocates gathered Wednesday for the first day of the West Virginia Children’s Justice “Handle With Care” Conference to learn more about child trauma, intervention and ways to help children become successful. In a state that leads the nation for opioid overdose deaths and babies born with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome, West Virginia children are often witnesses to and victims of trauma. The West Virginia Defending...